The polls have not been kind to the dominant media narrative. Taking lessons from their coverage of Obamamania, the fourth estate puffed up and justified the representation of Brown as a political superhero, straddling the globe whilst other leaders squabbled like pygmies beneath his legs. I am not sure where the source of this hagiographic support stemmed from, but the source in part, is Brown as a personification of the nation.
The appearance of undertaking such a role allowed an orgy of headlines about how Britain as Brown saved the credit crunch. That the mainstream media grasps this story is a testament to their insecurity. It is narrative of a nation in decline: febrile, brittle, with reporters suspending critical judgement. Once the real events start to seep out, it is clear that three weeks of Broonmedia, following the distortions of blanket conference coverage, have not stirred the polls beyond some decline in the Tory lead. Perhaps the media confused Obama and Brown.
If the media are now more prone to herd behaviour due to the narrow bases of their recruitment and education, this represents a further step change in their retreat from their audiences. When they hear the same message bleating from their television, radio and newspapers, people will turn to other sources and other traditions to explain their situation.
http://www.zombietime.com/lefts_big_blunder/
Regarding this essay by zombie, I think that we might expect to see a lot of this herd behaviour, especially from the media. But people here already like poking fun at Brown, whereas Obama – practically the personification of Liberal Guilt – is allowed to be a messiah.
Puffing up doesn’t always work, but the reasons why are important, and we should take note of them, especially when there are people like Obama around.
At least Mr Brown (unlike Senator Barack Obama) is not a Marxist – I suppose we should take some comfort from that.
Actually, in a grim way, the campaign of Senator Barack Obama has been very useful – it has exploded the myth of the “liberal” or “good” left.
They (the leading establishment “liberals”) know what he is (about from his childhood training by Frank and so on – right to his work handing out vast sums of money to Marxist groups with his comrade William Ayers) as well as I do – indeed they know it better than I do (being part of these circles themselves).
But the “liberal” politicians, media creatures and academics have rushed to support Senator Obama, and support him in the strongest terms. Only a handful (such as Senator Liberman) have not.
So they are not “liberal”, they are not “decent” people. They are no better than Barack Obama is.
They will go along with the crushing of the conservative element in talk radio – and with everything else.
The are not innocent people – they are guilty, they are enemies not “political opponents”.
At least that is now clear.